In today’s world, we are inundated with a constant flow of information and news. It can be difficult to filter through this flow and choose which sources we want our news and info to come from. In Julie Smith’s interview with Jesse, the first quote that stood out to me was “sometimes we tend to be more interested in what we believe than what is true” (Smith, 2021. 3:14-3:18). When we are constantly bombarded with information, it can be so hard to tell what is true, especially when our feeds are designed to show us content that will be of interest to us. Julie then mentions how “there’s so much information out there that it’s impossible to figure out whats real, meaningful, valid or true, and that creates extra work on our part, the onus is on us to figure out what really is valid and to understand why we choose the sources that we do” (Smith, 2021. 4:02-4:30). Smith advocates for media literacy, which is essentially asking questions about every message: who’s the sender? What’s their motive or intent? How is it created, who decides what information is left out, and who’s the target audience? (Smith, 2021. 5:20-5:28). By doing this, and becoming more media literate, we can begin to filter out the non-credible sources, or “fake news”, but it isn’t always easy.
Martin Hirst describes fake news as “the commercial weaponization of information” (Hirst, 2019. p. 80). All over the world, companies like news outlets, political organizations, corporations etc. attempt to fabricate stories or mislead their viewers for political or commercial advantage. Hirst points to the three main categories of fake news: “the obviously fake, the easy-to-spot deliberate fake and the subtle fake that almost passes undetected” (p. 87). I like to think that I am relatively good at detecting when something seems fake, but you really just never know, especially with all the technological advances we have today. Social media platforms are being used as a space for news-like information, rather than verified information; it is not rigorously fact-checked, and the audiences find, support and share all kinds of facts, falsehoods and feelings via their social media platforms, which sums up Hirst’s quote, “a lie can spread on the Internet, or via Twitter, faster than a journalist can muster the time or the energy to fact-check it” (Hirst, 2019. p. 89).
We have grown so accustomed to the attitude that “oh, if it’s on this website or on this platform then it must be true”. I can recall so many times that my partner has told me some outrageous story that he insists is real. I ask him where he found it, and he almost always says it was shared on his Facebook feed. I usually laugh at him, but this is honestly the case for so many people. We are so quick to believe whatever can is shown to us, that we often forget to consider it’s validity. This reminds me of a point brought up in Julie’s interview about pulled news rather than pushed news. Years ago, we only had a handful of news sources to choose from, and so it was always pushed on us. Now, we have thousands of choices, so we can pull our news from wherever we want. Smith mentions how this is not always a good thing, because as humans, we like to be affirmed, we like to be told that we are right and smart, so we naturally gravitate towards news outlets that feed that part of us (Smith, 2021. 19:04-19:28).
This brings me to my next point about how we are able to curate our social media with a critical public audience, taking into account the value that media literacy can have on our PLN. When we are building our “brand” and reputation online, so many things have to be considered. We always have to ask ourselves, who is going to see this, what is my intent with this, and who is my target audience (as Julie has explained). If we can ask ourselves these questions before we post something or update our feeds, then we can be on a better track for building up our online identity. In Jesse’s interview with Jody Vance, she says about being on social media that “I am my brand” (Vance, 2021. 18:56), “I am paid for my opinions … but I do have to be careful because everything [you post] is a postcard to the world (Vance, 2021. 19:11-19:28). I think this is so important to remember. Everything that we do in our PLN is out there for the world to see. Jody goes on to say that you have to be aware about what you put out there because your future boss or client can see that same thing, and thus “social media complicates things, yet at the same time exposes your strengths” (Vance, 2021. 19:34-19:44).
This is what we have been learning about over the course. About being mindful about what we do online, especially in today’s world. In Hannah’s post, she talks about “cancel culture”, where people are hated on for what they choose to post. This is especially risky for people who are in a position of trust, like me and my future as an educator. If I decide to post something controversial one night, it might affect who is going to hire me down the road, or what parents will not want me as their child’s teacher because of what I said one time. I really like this quote from Jody: “It takes a lifetime to make a reputation and a heartbeat to break it” (Vance, 2021. 21:31). She suggests to be mindful of when best to stop and to know when you’re crossing the line. This is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life! It is so important to know what and how something in your PLN can affect you, either negatively or positively. By taking media literacy into account, we can begin to curate our PLN’s, keeping in mind the critical public audience that will always be there.
Resources:
Hirst, M. (2019). Navigating social journalism: a handbook for media literacy and citizen journalism. Routledge.
Smith, Julie. (2021). EDCI 338 – MEDIA LITERACY with JULIE SMITH. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0
Vance, Jody. (2021). Jody Vance – Media Voices. Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-NnpQJdl0A